[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 101 (Wednesday, July 16, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H5306]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              RESERVE FUND

  (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, if it operates like a slush fund and is 
administered like a slush fund, then how should we refer to the 
leadership reserve?
  Last week in an a total sham process, the Committee on House 
Oversight steamrolled through a $1.4 million allocation from the 
leadership's $7.9 million slush fund to investigate organized labor's 
political activities. The reserve fund is supposed to be used under 
House rules in, and I quote, ``extraordinary, emergency, or high 
priority circumstances.''
  The Committee on House Oversight decided not to fund this request in 
March. What has happened? I ask my friends, what is the emergency? For 
whom is this investigation a high priority? Is this strictly a research 
endeavor, as the majority says? Why then a communications director for 
$70,000 and a media assistant for $25,000 and four additional attorneys 
for the committee?
  I do not have all the answers but I will ask one more question: If it 
walks like a witch hunt and talks like a witch hunt?

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